friends and countrymen,
as some of you well know, our training for the john muir trail has commenced!
(and we thought you might want to hear about it)
margie is eating a lot of carbs
katie has given up the elevator to her 11th floor apartment
why?
so we can walk 220+ miles together in the high sierras, starting July 29th.
unable to get a permit back in February (24 weeks in advance, as the permitters allow), we'll be headed to Yosemite on July 27th to secure one of the walk-up permits the park rangers keep on reserve
then it's into the wilderness for 21 days
what can you do to help?
offer to be a pack mule if you're agile and in the area (email katie for more info)
otherwise, please envision us bathed in sunshine, cool and comfortable, walking with a lively step

song that will be stuck in margie's head at mile 130: george michael, faith
song that will be running circles in katie's head: eurythmics, sweet dreams

ladies and gents,
less than two weeks from today and we'll be lacing up for what our father likes to say is "just a long walk"
this week katie and i are finalizing our menu-planning for the olympic 21-day adventure.
instead of cooking on the trail (and dealing with leaky bottles of olive oil and dishes to clean) we're adopting the freezerbagcooking.com approach, which requires full dehydration of all meals, a little boiling water, and BAM, trail-ready homemade risottos, pastas and more.

katie has her chef's hat on this week
meanwhile, margie is watching the lord of the rings trilogy, visualizing what it will be like to scale mountain peaks with hobbit-sized calves

we'd like to thank Sean and Bret for volunteering as pack mules for our trip.
your noble willingness to brave the bears and blisters will be ever appreciated.
please bring pie, fresh squeezed OJ, and bean + cheese burritos with extra guacamole.

fawns and fellows,
the day has very nearly arrived for us to scramble, amble, trek and roam
through the skies and valleys of the high sierras
as we ascend 46,000 feet
descend 38,000 feet
cross six passes above 11,000 feet
and summit two mountains over 14,000 feet

margie has been busy memorizing poems in case we run out of things to talk about
katie has been busy memorizing marine corps cadences in case we run out of steam

thanks to the Spot satellite messenger, findmespot.com, we'll be sending a regular thumbs up to our parents and other attached strings to let them know we're OK periodically along the trail.
(don't worry, Spot promises we'll "live to tell about it")

we're back in two pieces!
after three weeks without the consultation of google we are relieved to know that it was, in fact, Batman who saw his parents die

here's the trailer:
-ists -osts -iests and other -ests

most painful body part: right knees
prettiest/smartest lake: Lake Marjory
biggest moon: full, summiting the very tall (14,505-ft) Mount Whitney without headlamps at midnight on our last night
best taste: dried bing cherries caramelized in bacon
boldest move: steep morning scramble out of sixty lakes basin to glen pass without a trail
most unexpected sight: ladder golf
most common sight: katie or margie (depending)
most common nighttime vision: dessert anxiety dreams. No! The ones with the CHOCOLATE frosting!
favorite characters encountered on the trail: acid tripping climbers on our 4 a.m. starlit hike up Muir Pass
greatest scare that proved false: lost food bin at our second resupply
greatest scare that proved true: realizing we were two days short of food
greatest scare overall: axe murderer in running shorts
domino champ: still tallying
most mountainy mountain: the Matterhorn, which we camped under instead of climbing, and which has a proper name that we don't know
most passable pass: the biggest! Forester Pass, 13,600+ feet and a total cakewalk
most deserving of entry into heaven: Bret and Sean for their saintly efforts to deliver us to bacon and mexican food
biggest epiphany: that epiphanies are for people who sleep at sea level

finally, we want to thank the long list of you who sent letters to Muir Ranch. we've never felt so popular in the wilderness.

and Nick, damn. the trail-ready mini boom box -- seriously?? thank you for the soundtrack of yodels, This Land Is Your Land covers, and other tremendous gems.

08 :: 22 :: 08 updates
blisters: too many to count, but healing fast
bears: fictional
calves: surprising takeover by our biceps for circumference. the calves are robust, but within reason. we return thankfully as humans, not hobbits

++
margie + katie

---

:: jmt 005 ::

pictures!
it's hard to cram all that adventure into a limited run
and some of you may have already seen the teaser on facebook
but all these weeks later we have finally narrowed it down to 30-or-so-of-the-700 photoshere

sorry the descriptions aren't more... descriptive
but we already forget pretty much everything except the bacon,
and the axe murderer
and the full-moon-lit summit of mt. whitney
oh! and did we ever tell you about the haikus?
there were many.
here's a teaser:

Ode to Vermilion Valley Resort (ref., From Dusk Till Dawn)

Sorry kids, no boat
You'll have to stay the night here
Cue: Sound of chainsaw

and now announcing,
The Haiku Challenge
5:7:5
you try and cram a big experience into a small space,
and then email it to us
(you might make the book!)

friends and countrymen,
as some of you well know, our training for the john muir trail has commenced!
(and we thought you might want to hear about it)
margie is eating a lot of carbs
katie has given up the elevator to her 11th floor apartment
why?
so we can walk 220+ miles together in the high sierras, starting July 29th.
unable to get a permit back in February (24 weeks in advance, as the permitters allow), we'll be headed to Yosemite on July 27th to secure one of the walk-up permits the park rangers keep on reserve
then it's into the wilderness for 21 days
what can you do to help?
offer to be a pack mule if you're agile and in the area (email katie for more info)
otherwise, please envision us bathed in sunshine, cool and comfortable, walking with a lively step

song that will be stuck in margie's head at mile 130: george michael, faith
song that will be running circles in katie's head: eurythmics, sweet dreams

ladies and gents,
less than two weeks from today and we'll be lacing up for what our father likes to say is "just a long walk"
this week katie and i are finalizing our menu-planning for the olympic 21-day adventure.
instead of cooking on the trail (and dealing with leaky bottles of olive oil and dishes to clean) we're adopting the freezerbagcooking.com approach, which requires full dehydration of all meals, a little boiling water, and BAM, trail-ready homemade risottos, pastas and more.

katie has her chef's hat on this week
meanwhile, margie is watching the lord of the rings trilogy, visualizing what it will be like to scale mountain peaks with hobbit-sized calves

we'd like to thank Sean and Bret for volunteering as pack mules for our trip.
your noble willingness to brave the bears and blisters will be ever appreciated.
please bring pie, fresh squeezed OJ, and bean + cheese burritos with extra guacamole.

fawns and fellows,
the day has very nearly arrived for us to scramble, amble, trek and roam
through the skies and valleys of the high sierras
as we ascend 46,000 feet
descend 38,000 feet
cross six passes above 11,000 feet
and summit two mountains over 14,000 feet

margie has been busy memorizing poems in case we run out of things to talk about
katie has been busy memorizing marine corps cadences in case we run out of steam

thanks to the Spot satellite messenger, findmespot.com, we'll be sending a regular thumbs up to our parents and other attached strings to let them know we're OK periodically along the trail.
(don't worry, Spot promises we'll "live to tell about it")

we're back in two pieces!
after three weeks without the consultation of google we are relieved to know that it was, in fact, Batman who saw his parents die

here's the trailer:
-ists -osts -iests and other -ests

most painful body part: right knees
prettiest/smartest lake: Lake Marjory
biggest moon: full, summiting the very tall (14,505-ft) Mount Whitney without headlamps at midnight on our last night
best taste: dried bing cherries caramelized in bacon
boldest move: steep morning scramble out of sixty lakes basin to glen pass without a trail
most unexpected sight: ladder golf
most common sight: katie or margie (depending)
most common nighttime vision: dessert anxiety dreams. No! The ones with the CHOCOLATE frosting!
favorite characters encountered on the trail: acid tripping climbers on our 4 a.m. starlit hike up Muir Pass
greatest scare that proved false: lost food bin at our second resupply
greatest scare that proved true: realizing we were two days short of food
greatest scare overall: axe murderer in running shorts
domino champ: still tallying
most mountainy mountain: the Matterhorn, which we camped under instead of climbing, and which has a proper name that we don't know
most passable pass: the biggest! Forester Pass, 13,600+ feet and a total cakewalk
most deserving of entry into heaven: Bret and Sean for their saintly efforts to deliver us to bacon and mexican food
biggest epiphany: that epiphanies are for people who sleep at sea level

finally, we want to thank the long list of you who sent letters to Muir Ranch. we've never felt so popular in the wilderness.

and Nick, damn. the trail-ready mini boom box -- seriously?? thank you for the soundtrack of yodels, This Land Is Your Land covers, and other tremendous gems.

08 :: 22 :: 08 updates
blisters: too many to count, but healing fast
bears: fictional
calves: surprising takeover by our biceps for circumference. the calves are robust, but within reason. we return thankfully as humans, not hobbits

++
margie + katie

---

:: jmt 005 ::

pictures!
it's hard to cram all that adventure into a limited run
and some of you may have already seen the teaser on facebook
but all these weeks later we have finally narrowed it down to 30-or-so-of-the-700 photoshere

sorry the descriptions aren't more... descriptive
but we already forget pretty much everything except the bacon,
and the axe murderer
and the full-moon-lit summit of mt. whitney
oh! and did we ever tell you about the haikus?
there were many.
here's a teaser:

Ode to Vermilion Valley Resort (ref., From Dusk Till Dawn)

Sorry kids, no boat
You'll have to stay the night here
Cue: Sound of chainsaw

and now announcing,
The Haiku Challenge
5:7:5
you try and cram a big experience into a small space,
and then email it to us
(you might make the book!)